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I just posted an answer on the Arts & Crafts site containing two links to products on Amazon.

One is a link to an Amazon search rather than a specific product. It displays as entered when hovering, and works.

The other link was to a specific product, in markdown format, [title](url), and was visible as entered in the edit and preview windows. As an actual post, it was replaced with a rads.stackoverflow.com link, a substitution whose original purpose was to replace the direct link with an affiliate link. The substitute link does not work. Clicking on it leads to a page with the message:

This site can’t be reached
rads.stackoverflow.com refused to connect.

I replaced the markdown format with the raw url. That displays as entered, so the actual url is visible in the post. However, hovering reveals that it similarly gets substituted with the rads.stackoverflow.com link, and similarly leads to the page with the error message.

After discovering that the raw url fails, I checked a few Amazon links in other posts that had previously worked, and found that those also now fail. So it looks like something has changed (either SE handling, or something at the browser end), and no Amazon product links work. At least the raw url provides something the reader can copy and paste into the browser address window to see the posted link.

As indicated in the comments, the underlying problem has been around for several years and is described in the Meta post Given that Stack Exchange no longer adds its referral code to rewritten Amazon links, can we get rid of the link rewriter?.

Several comments indicate that the action blocking access to the rads.stackoverflow.com links may be due to network or browser ad blockers or other applications or extensions. All the user sees is that the links fail. Realistically, users are not going to investigate why the links fail, turn off their ad blocker or other software, or white-list SE sites in order for the sites to work.

How do I prevent automated replacement of Amazon product links from making my posts useless?

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    Related: Given that Stack Exchange no longer adds its referral code to rewritten Amazon links, can we get rid of the link rewriter?. I've written about this in detail there; it's a feature request to disable this rewriter since it's no longer actually adding an affiliate referral and is causing more problems than it's worth.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 21:27
  • Those rewritten links will not work if you have a network-level ad blocker. Disabling mine allowed me to properly access the link, with no error.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 21:28
  • For me, I was running Pi-hole and disabling Pi-hole (or whitelisting that domain) fixed it for me
    – cocomac
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 21:29
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    Thanks for the responses. People do run ad blockers and other extensions (for a reason). It's unreasonable to expect readers to investigate why post links don't work, or to white-list or disable extensions to enable ads (or links). If the links are no longer supported, the substitution needs to be properly turned off and purged. Otherwise, posts aren't usable by a significant portion of visitors. @SonictheAnti-NewVariant-hog, good meta post; too bad it hasn't been acted on.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 21:40

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